The present invention relates to a novel method for excavation, shoring and construction of buildings with basements.
Excavations for modern buildings are often thirty or more feet deep. In order to excavate safely, systems have evolved to safely support adjacent buildings and streets from cave-ins during the new building construction. Numerous innovative shoring processes, sheet piles, soldier piles, soil nails and tie-backs, are all common methods used to shore construction excavations. All of these methods are installed only for the purpose of supporting the excavation during the construction and not a part of the actual building.
Using any of the current state of the art methods, the shoring is usually installed before the excavation is can be safely accomplished. On a typical large building, the current shoring methods usually take weeks to install. Design plans for the shoring are usually submitted by the specialty shoring contractor and often times official shoring permit approvals require weeks of time. Excavation of a typical large building site can take additional weeks of time, after the shoring is installed. Under present methods, once the excavation is finished, building construction starts from the lowest level basement footing or supporting pile and goes up.
All of the shoring methods and sequences described above are well known to those familiar with large scale construction. Improvements are frequently patented:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,594, J. W. Sigourney (Apr. 3, 1990), discloses "a system for connecting facing panels to soldier piles to support the cut fact of an excavation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,583, C. Carey (Mar. 27, 1990), discloses "a method and structure for shoring a vertical face of an excavation . . . using small holes and grouted rods . . . to form vertical columns."
U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,203, S. D. Gregory (Sep. 22, 1987) discloses "An improved method for supporting and shoring building foundations and walls (using) pilings outside the structure."
U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,373, G. F. Langenback (Jul. 7, 1987) discloses a "apparatus for shoring a structure . . . foundation . . . a bracket engageable with the foundation (and) a pile and at least one footing . . . outside the pile."
U.S. Pat. No. 3,815,369, J. A. Meredith (Jun. 11, 1974), discloses "A shoring system for building site excavating operations utilizing caisson holes drilled in spaced positions outside the building perimeter and receiving flanged pile elements . . . "
U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,191, P. D. Egan, discloses "A retaining wall, for marine use . . . of corrugated panels anchored in earth . . . "
It is well known that time is one of the most expensive components of a large building because interest is charged against the funds borrowed by the building owners during the construction process.